with Assyria; both the panic and the coveted defence were sinful. They were the fruits of unbelief and disobedience. The Lord's arm was not shortened that it could not save, nor His ear heavy that it could not hear. And for Judah to invoke another ear and trust in another arm than His, was to renounce a Divine birthright which bore the seal of many generations.

6

In these circumstances & message from God came with commanding force to the prophet Isaiah, to this effect: Do not join in this cry, a confederacy-a confederacy!' Be not carried away by the fears which fill the nation, or by the false confidences in which they hope. The confederacy against you will come to nought, if you only trust in your God; the confederacy for you will be no defence unto you, if you confide in it and thus renounce your God. Yield not to the panic which covers the streets of Jerusalem with confusion. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself; and let him be your fear and let him be your dread, and he shall be to you for a sanctuary" (Is. viii. 12-14).

This is a message for all ages, at least in the spirit of it; a message for London, and England as well as for Jerusalem and Judah; a message adapted not only to the recent monetary circumstances of our great city, but to circumstances which often arise, and to tendencies which often manifest themselves among us.

Every now and then a war-fever breaks out. The nation is seized by it, and becomes practically mad; and if a few happen to be cooler, and soberer than their neighbours, they are in danger of being denounced as unnational and unpatriotic. At other

times, the nation is seized by a gold fever, and the cry becomes "Gain, Gain-Give, Give!" Those who do not join in the cry and in the chase. when they have opportunity, are regarded as little better than fools, at least as being ignorant of their own interests, or too idle to put forth their hands to pluck the ripe fruit that is within their reach. Sometimes this gold fever becomes red hot, and, like ether fevers, produces delirium. It was se in the days of the railway mania some twenty years ago, and in the days of the discovery of gold in Australia, at a later period. And we are not sure whether it has not been so during the last few years in the getting up of companies, many of which, though calling themselves "Limited," promise great things, as if they were unlimited in their power to enrich their shareholders.

This gold fever has become quite a chronic disease in England. There are always individual cases of it among us in which it is at its very height-and always at its height, with scarcely a temporary abatement. It is a passion-strong and irrepressible, but with reason in its madness, a reason which becomes its deliberate instrument for the accomplishment of its purposes by all means, lawful and unlawful. But apart from these particular cases the general pulse of the nation is affected by this gold fever. It might perhaps be an exaggeration to say that, in consequence of it, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot of the nation, there is no soundness in it. But it is no exaggeration to say, that its influence is very wide spread and very injurious.

Let England hear the message of God to Isaiah and to Judah, through

His lips, and the divine principles which it embodies will operate on English society with all the salutary influence which the salt cast by Elisha into the spring of waters at Jericho exercised, so that from thence there was no more death nor barren land. 66 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself:" let Him be hallowed in your thoughts and affections, in your pursuits and aims and lives. "And he shall be for a sanctuary:" a refuge from all enemies and powers, a holy refuge, a refuge in all sorrow and adversity and difficulty. Let Englishmen obey this command, and claim in faith this privilege, and the results will be more precious than the gold of Ophir.

The very first effect of these principles will be to put an interdict on everything which the conscience declares unlawful in the sight of God. The unjust, the false, the selfish, will be tabooed; it will be placed under the ban of a law which yields to no persuasion and no pressure. Men will feel that they can afford to lose and to be poor, but they cannot afford to sin.

Their ambition after wealth, even when the means for its attainment are within the strictest limits of law, will be moderated. Riches cannot be the end or idol or god of the heart in which Jehovah Himself is sanctified, and it cannot be pursued with inordinate affection. Divine Providence, moreover, will be distinctly and constantly recognized as having to do with all the affairs of the common business of life. To many the idea of Providence is but a dream-to many not even so much as a dream; it is a thing unknown, unthought of. Their own swiftness is the only providence that determines. their position in the race; the

strength of their own arm, the wisdom of their own brain, barring accidents and casualties, alone determines their success in life's battle. It is difficult to imagine the greatness of the mental revolution which would be produced in these men by their learning to hallow the Lord of hosts.

Let men listen to Isaiah's message, and they will likewise be delivered from the bondage and the agitation of fear.

The existence of some people is one of perpetual unrest. The sea is not more unresting than their souls. Their health, their life, their children, their business, are objects and occasions of perpetual fear. But only let them obey the command, and believe the promise of God, and He will be to them for a sanctuary, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Times of adversity will come, it is true. We have no power to avert them, and Divine Providence does not act unwisely or unkindly in not averting them. And when they do come in the form of a monetary crisis, or commercial panic, in such a com plicated social system as ours the innocent are sure to suffer with the guilty. The haste to be rich, or the rashness or the unwisdom of a few, often involves a large number in temporal ruin; and then the unhal lowed gains of speculation, and the lawful gains of honest, quiet, patient industry, perish together. When this sore evil, which is often seen under the sun, overtakes a man who in his aims and toils has " sanctified the Lord himself," he will find the Lord whom he has honoured his soul's sanctuary and his strength. The suddenness and the severity of the

The First Epistle of John Expounded in a series of Lectures. By ROBERT S. CANDLISH, D.D. Edinburgh; Adam and Charles Black.

{ WE have long cherished a profound

admiration of Dr. Candlish's intellectual power and acumen, but we confess that it was with much misgiving we saw his name associated with the name of the Apostle John, the man of logic, and the man of love! We feared no small degree of incongruity; and all the more that we were greatly disappointed by our author's work on "the Fatherhood of God; a work which, notwithstanding all that has been said, and truly said, in praise of it, seems to us to have spoiled a glorious opportunity of setting forth the Divine Fatherhood in a manner that should effectually counteract the spurious and unscriptural notions which Broad Churchism has made common and popular. Spoiled it, we mean, by speculations, which, familiar as we are with Scotch metaphysics, do not aid either our understanding or our faith, but rather tend to confound both. Having so recently laid down (not editorially, for the book was not sent to us for review,) the Lectures on the Fatherhood of God with an unsatisfied and painful feeling, we were not prepossessed in favour of Lectures on the Epistle of John from the same source; but both prejudice and prepossession are dangerous things, and we now thank Dr. Candlish with a most honest and fervent sincerity for his volume. Were we to use the language which both conviction and feeling would dictate in reference to it, it would be regarded by many as too strong to be perfectly true. And yet our author does not repudiate in his volume any of his ideas contained in his book on the Fatherhood;" on the contrary, these ideas are, not only true in his judg ment but very important; and where the subjects of the two books are one, their author's opinions are one likewise. But

our dissent from an occasional interpretation, is altogether insignificant in comparison with our heart-satisfied acceptance of the whole.

Dr. Candlish is deeply convinced, he tells us, after years of thought about the First Epistle of John, that it can be studied aright exegetically only where it is studied theologically. "Of course," he adds, "I do not mean that a cut-and-dry creed, accepted beforehand, is to rule or overrule the critical and grammatical interpretation of the ascertained text. But I think no one is competent to deal with this wonderful book who is not familiar with the evangelical system as a whole, and able therefore to appreciate the bearings of John's line of thought in connection with it. I do not speak of the higher qualification of spiritual-mindedness. I make this remark simply as a theologian and an expositor." We had some some fears of the effect of this principle on the exposition, but our fears were groundless. Dr. Candlish has not allowed a "cut-anddry creed" to rule or overrule his interpretations. He has entered with the profoundest sympathy into the peculiar thoughts or forms of thought that are to be found in the writings of John. But the constitution of his own mind, and his acquaintance with the "theology of all Scripture, have saved him from the onesidedness and the haziness, which are sure to characterise all "mystical" interpreta tions of the Beloved Disciple.

It will be readily understood that the book before us is not one for cursory ori superficial readers, nor for mere critics of the "letter" of the Word of God; but it is for those, whether ministers orlaymen, who' can abstract themselves from the haste and bustle of a restless world, and give up mind and heart to a leisurely, thoughtful, and devout study of the latest and deepest utterances of the Spirit of Inspiration. The ministerial mind,, which becomes imbued with the thoughts and spirit of this book, will exercise unconsciously the